Gumnaam

Basically an adaptation of Agatha Christie's "Ten Little Indians," this film is highlighted by one of the greatest, most euphoric rock 'n' roll dance sequences ever, which was featured in the opening credits of Terry Zwigoff's excellent "Ghost World."

Of course nothing can be taken seriously here, as the characters get murdered one by one, they still find the time to have a beach party and stage elaborate musical numbers. There are some terrific musical fantasy numbers, but of course the "Jan Pehechaan Ho" scene featured in "Ghost World" is by far the best.

Gumnaam advertises itself as a horror thriller. Well. It's not. There are about 2 minutes that were really thrilling. Most of the time the movie was not as scary as it would have liked to be. But who cares?! I found it entertaining and I think if you understand all that is said and don't have to rely on subtitles you might even find it more funny, especially every time Mehboob as the butler is on screen. My favorites in this film were Helen and Pran. In many films they get only short roles, it was great to see them on the screen for so long - and even flirting :-) Of course Helen having several song-and-dance scenes is a BIG plus for Gumnaam. And the other songs are good as well. No need to add anything about Jan Paheehan Ho....!

Don't watch this film if you are against smoking and drinking... I've never seen so many people smoking in a film! And even the girls are "corrupted" into drinking alcohol. How shocking! ;-) But hey, if it results in a cool song, that's fine with me!

Gumnaam may not be the best film ever produced ever in Mumbai but it's definitely entertaining and has great music!

The movie starts out simple enough. A man stands at a balcony and smokes a cigarette while watching a drunk man (coming out of a nightclub/bar) getting run over with a car. This is all intentional. The man on the balcony goes inside, pays someone for the death of the man on the street and then proceeds to call a whole bunch of people to let them know the man has died. In the middle of the phone call to the dead man's niece, a strange man in a trench coat, hat and gloves comes in and shoots the man.

After this we get the most famous scene of this movie : the dance scene that was shown in Ghost World. Its a crazy 60's rock n' roll dance number, complete with a girl dressed in a gold dress with frills, male dancers dressed in black suits with white frill shirts, female backup dancers in pink dresses with frills and a lounge singer dressed in a white suit with black tie. They are all wearing black masks. The song is quite catchy and makes you wanna get up and dance (or if you prefer, dance in your seat).

After the dance number (for the silver anniversary of the club), seven people are "randomly" chosen to go on an exclusive holiday abroad. On the way to the location, the plane has to land for repairs (it lands in the middle of a field somewhere). When the plane unexpectedly leaves, the seven "castaways" (8 if you count the Ray Romano looking steward) look around. They discover a mansion in the middle of nowhere, where a butler/cook awaits their arrival (and knows all theirs names except for the steward).

I would classify this movie as a Bollywood version of an Agatha Christie type suspense mystery. In typical Bollywood fashion this would include several dance and musical numbers. This is a very enjoyable twist on the whole mystery genre. It is true that the music and dancing does distract one from the mystery and reduces the tension. At the same time, I was enjoying the dance/musical numbers too much too care. By far my favorite dance/musical number (other than the opening one) would be the drunken singing scene between Miss Kitty and Nanda. I also loved the product placement of the movie. It is quite evident how much "Hollywood" items are used as items of social stature in other cultures. For example, the Cool cigarettes and the Long John whiskey. It is also quite comical to witness the amount of tobacco smoked in this movie (several black lung's worth). This is a very enjoyable movie and the 180 minutes rush by. I highly recommend this movie.

-Celluloid Rehab

7 Stars only because it's a 1964 flick, so not as advance as it has to be. All culprits in the lonely mansion are enjoying, eating and having fun, although they have been made aware that each one of them will be killed!

Except for last 15-20 minutes, grip of this so-called thriller movie is poor. Mehmood's role and comedy are totally insignificant, and boring at times!

Motto of the serial murders is not very convincing. Overall plot and opening sequences are good.

Unlike in today's movies, detailing is very poor, script succums at many places. When secret of the murders us being revealed, it's not at all shown, how all these murders were done!! Each victim was carrying a wrapon or poison! For what?? They were anyway on a sponsored foreign pleasure trip!!

May be it was a novelty movie then, so went on becoming superhit! Music by Shanker Jaikishan is always fabulous, superb here, especially the title song ... mind blowing, suits perfectly to the theme of the movie!👌👍 And yeah, at times, you start wondering, who is the real heroine of this movie, Nanda or Helen?! And, who is hero, Manoj Kumar or Pran??!!😷

HOW could anyone not love GUMNAAM? The most sensational dance number ever to open a serial killer movie "Jan Pennechaan Ho" and the fabulous Glomesh Ganesh in a gold Lame dress, Zorro boys and India's answer to Little Richard kick start GUMNAAM off to a musical start start unmatched in movie history. There even seems to be the wives and aunties of the producers as chorus girls, all out of step in their purple frilly dresses - and Zorro masks. Not even the superb 1955 plaster nightclub decor (made in 1965) or the (laughing bird) Kookaburra sounds (often heard in Tarzan films) clutter this most exuberant of nightclub dance numbers. The lead singer even throws himself on the floor and convulses - all in tune! The "Anything Goes" opening of INDIANA JONES TEMPLE OF DOOM can't even match this for 'out of your seat' shocko bizarro, because from then on GUMNAAM busies itself with a literally 'and then there were none' plot. There is a haunted mansion, ghosts and nooses from nowhere. The Mantan Moreland style kitchen hand Mamood, has the other major dance number, a tiki-himialyan Esther Williams inspired heavenly fantasy of meeting dancing virgins atop a spearmint plaster stairway held up with dancing plaster fish. All to tikka tikka boo bongo music Just beyond belief. What about the Two drunk girls who decide to sing about how funny it is to be drunk in a haunted house with a killer on the loose! Imagine THE GIRL CAN'T HELP IT meets 'TEN LITTLE INDIANS' via MURDER ON THE ORIENT-NILE-GANGES and you might get slightly close. Find GUMNAAM. Show it to all your friends. IF only Hollywood was this much fun. Well it was, once wasn't it. This gets a 10 out of 10 just for the two dance numbers alone. The other 145 minutes are a bonus.